Will Apple go back and remove this software from every machine that it was installed on "by mistake"? If not, does this software do anything to affect the user? My initial black-helicopter thought was: "Does it by chance report any details back to Apple when an iPhone is connected?" It sure sounds it pulls a lot of info off the phone...

It's quite possible you're right

But if Apple really wants to gather details of the iPhones in the wild, they surely have more subtle ways...